Was Grosjean’s penalty harsh enough?

The severity of Romain Grosjean’s penalty for causing a crash at the start of the Spanish Grand Prix is the subject of our latest video debate (below).

The Haas driver picked up a three-place grid penalty for spinning across the track after losing control at Turn 3, which led to him being collected by Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly, eliminating all three cars from the race on the spot.

“I don’t know what he was thinking,” says Autosport Editor-in-Chief Andrew van de Burgt, who joins Glenn Freeman and Ben Anderson to discuss the incident, and draws comparisons with Tom Kristensen’s huge accident in the 2007 DTM season opener at Hockenheim that left the Le Mans legend on the sidelines at the beginning of that campaign.

“The fact it’s Monaco means those are three proper grid place penalties, he’s going to struggle to get those back.

“If you look back previously at when he picked up his race ban [at Spa in 2012], arguably this incident is worse. He can consider himself very lucky.”